BY THE WAY

Evening Star, Issue 16628, 10 January 1918, Page 7

BY THE WAY

[By Gabel Ceoss.] Mr Lloyd George’s recent pronouncement on the war aims'of the Allies, like so numy of its predecessors, reveals the British Prime Minister as one of the 'bigstatesmen, if not : the biggest statesman, whom the world-war has thrown into the Emelight. Some such comprehensive statement was due after the many furtive efforts by Germany to ascertain Whether British “ obstinacy ” were as obstinate as -■ ® ver - Mr Lloyd George has a remarkable faculty of penetrating insight and lucid statement. The essential threads in a confused tangle cannot evade-him, and in ms most critically important expositions of policy, no man can steer so triumphantly between Scylla and Charybdis when momentous issues hang upon the choice of a , * or ’ A mo , n S other statements of outstanding significance is the declaration that , w ® mean to stand by France to the i death on the demand they make for recon- 1 sideration of the great wrong of 1871, j when, without any regard for the wishes ! of the population, two French provinces j were torn from France and incorporated in j the German Empire”; and the dictum | that “ the complete withdrawal of alien | armies” from occupied territories ‘‘.and reparation for injustice done is the fundamental condition of a permanent peace.” The latter phrase has an abstract sound that, perhaps, makes it all the more useful for diplomatic purposes; while as to Alsace-Lorraine, it will he noted that Mr i Lloyd George does not say we will stand with ’France to the death in her demand j for the “ retrocession ” of the lost provinces, but for ‘‘ the reconsideration of the great wrong of 1871.” I think it was in bis great Glasgow speech that, referring to this subject, he said: “However long the struggle lasts. Great Britain intends to stand by France until she has redeemed her oppressed children from the degradation of a foreign yoke.” Neither of those declarations involves a pledge; to fight until the disputed provinces are restored to France, though they do necessarily imply the ousting of Germany, which will be brought low indeed before it consents to such a dramatic and symbolic humiliation. Only three months ago Von Kuhlmann, \he Foreign Secretary, laid down the iolemn asseveration that “there is only cue answer to the question ‘ Can Germany n. any form_ make concession regarding Alsace-Lorraine?’. That answer is: ‘No, never, so long as a single German can hold a gun.’ ******* Perhaps the most puzzling of the Prime Minister’s suggestions for a posh-war settlement _ is that referring to the German colonies. The proposed solution bristles with difficulties and possibiEties of trouble * We are told that “they are. being held for_ disposal by a conference, whose decision must have primary regard to the wishes and interests of the native inhabitants. None of those territories are inhabited by Europeans; therefore, the governing consideration in all these cases must be that the inhabitants should be placed under the control of an administration aceejitable to themselves, one of whose main purposes must be to prevent their exploitation for the benefit of European capitalists or governments.” A fine programme, truly! But how can the natives of Africa, Papua, and the Bismarck Archipelago be expected to choose intelligently between the puzzling alternatives that might be submitted to their vote? A nod from chiefs and headmen would decide everything • and who is to prevent the bribing of such influential personages, and guarantee anything decently approaching a referendum that is not a farce? What international council of administration could be expected to succeed in the teeth of their own mutual jealousies and the growing power of the European communities that would certainly spring up? If the natives elected to be governed by a council appointed solely by and responsible . solely to one of the Great Powers, such Power would virtually possess the coun- ■ try. What is the use of maintaining that “ the general principle of national selfdetermination is as applicable in their cases as in those of the occupied- European territories”? The explanation of this apparently so Utopian a suggestion by so very wide-awake an authority as Air Lloyd George is probably his perfect satiofaction that no natives who have tasted the felicities of German rule wfil want any more of it, and that they can be trusted to vote Germany out. It may be a subtle wayy out of a specific difficulty, but there is no denying the dangers of it, which might put in awkward reminders at very inconvenient times. I cannot help thinking that when things are finally settled it will be found that the disposal of the ’captured German possessions has played an important part in the indemnities wrung from Germany in the interests of the peoples and countries she has so barbarously wronged. ******* Lord Northcliffe’s letter to the Prime Minister declining his offer of the administration of the new Air Ministry is a characteristically straightforward and courageous document, which leaves Ettle to the imagination and is very interesting in many ways. He says : Returning after five months spent in the virile atmosphere of the United States and Canada, I find that while these two countries are proceeding with their war preparations with a fervor and enthusiasm little understood on this side of the Atlantic; while the United States instantly put into operation Conscription, over which wo wobbled for two years, and is making short work of seditionmongers ; while Canada already has given such proofs of thoroughness as the disfranchisement of conscientious objectors and the denaturalisation of all me my aUens naturalised within the last 13 years; whEe we, for our part, are asking immense sacrifices from these peoples, there still are in office here those who daEy with such urgent questions as that of unity of war control, eradication of sedition, mobilisation of the whole man and woman power of the country and the introduction of compulsory food rations. . . . I can do better work if I maintain my independence » and am not gagged by loyalty that I do not feel toward the whole of your Administration. It is not a little singular that, when expressing enthusiastic admiration for, the out-and-out thoroughness of the war measures in the United States and Canada, and contrasting them with some conspicuous failures in Britain, Lord Northcliffe should be absolutely silent on the greatest and most outstanding contrast of an. For j-' there is a scandal associated with the Lloyd George Administration it is their weak-kneed, fear-and-trembling attitude betore the drink Moloch, the most disabling and prolific curse to the country’s efficiency in this exhausting war; while in the United S(,dt€s ana OhDcklji, already fast approaching national sobriety before the war, the alcohol evil has been most promptly and drastically dealt with as a-war measure for prpteeting.the soldiers and promoting efficiency of every kind. A State Governor could teE the Rev. R. B. S. Hammond, who recently returned to Australia from a health trip, that 25,000 men had been encamped near his capital lor three months and that during that time not one of the men had - touched strong drink. Lord Northcliffe must have been struck with the swift and final determination of the authorities and people across the Atlantic L: /Totally eliminate strong drirsi from the entire sphere of their military activities, *■* d the painful contrast that greeted him ,Vf_ his return, elsewhere he may have to ito But it is singular, to say ‘the least, that in drawing up counts against Mr Lloyd George’s Administration Tie deliberately omits what most people regard! as the greatest of. all, the failure •- which, by contrast, must have been driven into him so painfully in ’ Prohibition America and Canada. * * * * ' * * * , For a long time I have been conscious of an impatience almost amounting to anger with the people who are always talking about the coming teacher who is going to‘put aE things right in our crazy world. ■ Not that I would object to a general rectification;but I do fiercely object to. be told that Che supreme desider-

atum in this world is a teacher, that the world is groaning for a teacher, as if truth to live by had disappeared from the earth, and wo were morally bankrupt,The implication is that the old teachers and guides, Christ included, are,.out of date, and no longer equal to demands, and that we are landed in an awful interval without light and leading. We are going mad after miracles and mahatmas, secoftd comings and other infallibilities, and all-convincing dramatics. And yet, in a very real sense, truth is a drug on the market, and the world is sick of teaching. We talk about truth saving the world, setting the world free, etc. Who wants truth? Who wiE do or suSer anything to get it? Will one in a hundred? What wo are'after is not truth at all, but convenience, profit, comfort, ■ anything to flatter our prejudices, and leave us unmolested and snug. It is outrageously untrue to say that what the world needs above all things is a new and up-to-date light-bringer. The evil of our time is not darkness and confusion, but the want of an imperious, unaccommodating passion for truth and sincerity. What are we doing with the truth that lies close to our hand? Behold,- we go soaring into empyrean heights with our lofty demands for new truth and new teachers to rescue the world from its morally bankrupt condition ; and all the time we are liars and rogues and oppressors, our hands full of bribes and- our souls, sick with compromise and chicanery. We talk 'about truth to make the world free, while wo are one minutes licking somebody’s boots because they are rich and the next letting somebody feel our own because they are poor; and in general playing the ape one day and the tiger the next! No more hypocritical whine ever obtained currency "than that which explains the chaos of the world as due to the want of some new Heaven-sent teacher. * '* * * * * * No saner and more impassioned appeals in the interests of our soldiers have appeared than those of Miss E. A. Rout, honorary secretary of the New Zealand Soldiers’ Medical Club, Hornchurch. Before she proceeded on her self-chosen mission to the soldiers Miss Rout was official stenographer in the Supreme Court, Christchurch, and was known as a most alert, capable, and energetic woman. In the earlier stages of the war Miss Rout became seized with the idea that there were hundreds of women who, without being trained nurses, could render valuable service in various capacities at the front and would willingly go if they had the ghost of an opportunity. In the teeth of many discouragements, and under the inspiration of much cold water, official and otherwise, Miss Rout organised small contingents of this auxiliary and unrecognised sisterhood. The first of these proceeded to Egypt, and had a trying time, being often in soro straits for the barest necessities. I cannot say how the movement developed, or whether it developed at all, but its originator found a mission in which she has done and is doing heroic work in a most discouraging sphere—work for which New Zealand parents cannot be too grateful while their boys are exposed to dangers worse than wounds and death. It was chiefly to such dangers that Mr Jamieson referred in what was regarded as a much exaggerated and unduly sensational statement regarding the wav in which our inexperienced New Zealand" lads were recklessly flung into the London streets to manage as best they could, Mr Jamieson was assailed from ev6ry quarter, c,nd a fresh' batch of protests, many of them from chaplains, arrived by the last mail. But while we are grateful for any degree of reassurance, we have the fact, cabled a few days ago, that in writing to ttm Home papers to contradict Mr Jamieson s charge, the High Commissioner admits the chief count, and says: “I intensely regret that I must agree regarding the laxitv of the London street control over facilities for intemperance and immorality. I called official attention to these conditions, and continue to urge that effective legislation be provided.” Speaking of New' Zealand soldiers in the streets of London, Miss Rout says ‘‘it is practically impossible for them to escape temptation,’ ’ especially after their horrible experiences at the front, when the attractions of such female society as is available is a “ relief beyond our understanding.” Miss Rout is very- emphatic as to the deplorable extent ot the evil she is fighting, and appeals for funds to assist her campaign, which is supplementary to the official work already being done. ■